A New England Aesthetic

One thing I love about Boston is that everybody looks like crap. Okay, not absolutely everybody but polish is not highly valued around here. Most people have dingy, coarse skin and wear a lot of black. Not sophisticated, elegant black but beat-up black. Worn, slightly faded, out of shape, saggy at the knees and elbows black. People have crispy or messed-up hair. We look rumpled in an urban way. We have a patina. It's kind of a declaration of our human frailty.

Here one does not strive obviously to be the most beautiful or the most brilliant. Sure, you want to be the best but you don't want to look like you want to and you certainly don't want to look like you're trying. It's an affectation but one that I can relate to and one that I'm comfortable with.

There's still an aesthetic of austerity here in New England. Overindulgence is a relative thing but there isn't much here that people do to the extreme, except maybe hold back. Sure, people stay up all night partying or spend tons of money on stupid things but it seems to me that such things are done with more joie de vivre in other places. Our autumn colors are probably the most exuberant thing we have.

Austerity can be very beautiful. I find it comforting because it doesn't ask more of me than I want to give. Exuberance requires commitment and commitment implies the possibility of failure. Austerity is achievable. It's something we New Englanders can do, no problem.

Oh, so now I'm a New Englander?